http://www.haikulearning.com/ is really teacher friendly website creator specifically designed for teachers.
Check out a friends site at http://www.myhaikuclass.com/kcmowrey/mowreysclass/cms_page/view/30636
It's free too... always a bonus.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Nice twist on charitable contrabutions
Recently on a math teacher forum someone posted an interesting link for teachers: www.donorschoose.org
On this site teachers bid for donations to specific projects... for example, since many of the investigations written assuming the use of the ti-83/84 graphing calculator. But what if you don't have a classroom set? At donorschoose.org it is completely reasonable to finance 8 calcualtors with contrabutions.
True this is not a classroom set, but I could be one calculator for a group of four (assuming a class of less than 32)... then next year you could get 8 more and so on... in four years you could have a classroom set.
Not an ideal solution, but defiantly plausible.
On this site teachers bid for donations to specific projects... for example, since many of the investigations written assuming the use of the ti-83/84 graphing calculator. But what if you don't have a classroom set? At donorschoose.org it is completely reasonable to finance 8 calcualtors with contrabutions.
True this is not a classroom set, but I could be one calculator for a group of four (assuming a class of less than 32)... then next year you could get 8 more and so on... in four years you could have a classroom set.
Not an ideal solution, but defiantly plausible.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Using the K.I.S.S philosophy in creating an open source textbook
When I was in high school I signed up for auto shop the spring semester of my Junior year. I really wasn't fired up about it, but I needed something in my schedule and it fit. To my absolute supprise, auto shop with Mr. Taylor turned into one of my most favorite classes of all time! I didn't know anything about cars, but I enjoyed puzzles and solving problems. Mr. Tayor was a no-nonsence, tell-it-like-it-is, practical problem solver who taught me the value of the K.I.S.S. philosophy... Keep It Simple Stupid!
Many of the puzzles and problems that we come across, if they are unfamiliar, we tend to try to over complicate. It's one of those things where, when we know the answer, it seems simple and obvious... but when we don't we develop anxiety within ourselves and thus over complicate the matter.
Take the rubics cube for example. When we first grab that thing, it seems darn near impossible to solve. However, we know that there must be a simple answer because there are people who can solve it in less that 30 seconds!
Mr. Taylor taught me to be practice and keep my solution schemes simple. Some would call this Occam's Razor (the simplest answer tends to be the correct answer), but I prefer Mr. Taylor's KISS (because it makes me smile:)
This is the basic philosophy behind the construction of an open source textbook. The basic idea is to develop content to create viable math textbooks using already existing technology. Certainly fancy graphics would be nice, but cant we just draw what we need and use a scanner to put it into a document? Can't we just use the screen capture feature of the graphing calculator to build the graphics we need? Latex equation editors are open source, very high quality and easy to use in google docs... so why not use them?
The point is that at this point developing a coherent content is more important than displaying computer wizardry... there is certainly enough of that on the internet already. As the community of Open Source grows, perhaps there will be more people to develop things like impressive graphic and interactive applets. But for now... K.I.S.S. does the job. Let the text book companies worry about "keeping up with the Jones'" and spend all their money on half hearted graphics that catch the eye of a potential buyer or endless/empty web resources that are made to impress buyers with volume, not quality.
Mr. Taylor would have encouraged me to look to the cause of the problem. Since textbook companies sell their material to a national audience, they are not really interested in meeting the all needs of local educators... rather to create a product that meets (or appears to meet) as many of the needs in as many places as they can to maximize profit.
An open source textbook may not be flashy, yet. But as the community develops it has the potential of creating an editable resource that has a vast list of contributing authors and multiple versions to choose from... absolutely free!
Imagine if every math teacher could look at their classes at the beginning of the semester and tell them, honestly, that they are the author of the textbook that will be used in class.
How cool would that be?
Many of the puzzles and problems that we come across, if they are unfamiliar, we tend to try to over complicate. It's one of those things where, when we know the answer, it seems simple and obvious... but when we don't we develop anxiety within ourselves and thus over complicate the matter.
Take the rubics cube for example. When we first grab that thing, it seems darn near impossible to solve. However, we know that there must be a simple answer because there are people who can solve it in less that 30 seconds!
Mr. Taylor taught me to be practice and keep my solution schemes simple. Some would call this Occam's Razor (the simplest answer tends to be the correct answer), but I prefer Mr. Taylor's KISS (because it makes me smile:)
This is the basic philosophy behind the construction of an open source textbook. The basic idea is to develop content to create viable math textbooks using already existing technology. Certainly fancy graphics would be nice, but cant we just draw what we need and use a scanner to put it into a document? Can't we just use the screen capture feature of the graphing calculator to build the graphics we need? Latex equation editors are open source, very high quality and easy to use in google docs... so why not use them?
The point is that at this point developing a coherent content is more important than displaying computer wizardry... there is certainly enough of that on the internet already. As the community of Open Source grows, perhaps there will be more people to develop things like impressive graphic and interactive applets. But for now... K.I.S.S. does the job. Let the text book companies worry about "keeping up with the Jones'" and spend all their money on half hearted graphics that catch the eye of a potential buyer or endless/empty web resources that are made to impress buyers with volume, not quality.
Mr. Taylor would have encouraged me to look to the cause of the problem. Since textbook companies sell their material to a national audience, they are not really interested in meeting the all needs of local educators... rather to create a product that meets (or appears to meet) as many of the needs in as many places as they can to maximize profit.
An open source textbook may not be flashy, yet. But as the community develops it has the potential of creating an editable resource that has a vast list of contributing authors and multiple versions to choose from... absolutely free!
Imagine if every math teacher could look at their classes at the beginning of the semester and tell them, honestly, that they are the author of the textbook that will be used in class.
How cool would that be?
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Unit 2 (first draft) is up!
After a few slight changes, unit 2 (two variable equations) is now up on michiganmath.org
The teaching of the material went well... in particular, the investigations at the end of the unit in regards to correlation, lsrl and causation was well received by students.
Coming soon... unit 3... Systems of Linear Equations.
The teaching of the material went well... in particular, the investigations at the end of the unit in regards to correlation, lsrl and causation was well received by students.
Coming soon... unit 3... Systems of Linear Equations.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
welcome google docs
In search of a good open source solution to my file compatibility woes, I finally settled on google documents. My .docx files created on my windows machine had a hard time opening in mac. When I converted all of the files to the older .doc files, I lost much of the equations converting and much of the formating of the original documents. Plus, it was going to be really hard to keep up with edits and uploads to the mighiganmath.org website.
Google docs seems like a good solution.
Pros:
- all documents will open in multiple platforms.
- No longer to upload new files every time there is a revision... I can just make the revision in google and the link on the website works instantly with the new version.
- Equation editor saves space by using html. Although it is more basic than all the options ms word has to offer, it is more than enough for an algebra 1 or 2 book.
- I can open the document at times for external editing if I choose.
Cons:
- documents can only be no more than 2MB with images... 500k of text. (this may be a hidden pro because it will force the documents to be succinct and more easily accomplished in one class period)
- I have had formating issues when i have exported google docs to ms word in the past. Things get shuffled around.
- I'm a control freak and the google docs are not in my control... Ie what if something happens to google docs and all of my files are lost, misplaced, corrupted, etc... Of course they will be backed up, but see con #2 for my concern there.
Overall, it is the best of my choices. Microsoft and apple cant seem to make a word that talks to each other smoothly in both platforms (is suspect that this is some type of super corporate wars for market share profits... or something like that). So my open source options LaTex, a wiki or google docs. LaTex is much more powerful and solves the compatibility issue, but requires editor to know a difficult markup language (making it impossible to be edited by non-computer oriented people). Also LaTex doesn't solve the online editing option. A wiki would solve the online editing problem, but for use in the classroom, many teachers will want to print out the investigations and make copies for the class. In my experience, the formating of wikis doesnt always turn out the way you want it when you print. Plus, there is the hassle of finding a "free" wiki that allows for member access by login. Google documents doesn't have this either, but at least I can control "when" the document can be edited.
So google docs it is... for now....
Friday, October 2, 2009
Unit 1 back up!
I finally figured out how I can use my MAC to build the website and properly upload my Office Documents. Anyways, Unit 1 in the draft format is finally up... sorry it took so long.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Do your students a favor… let them struggle!
One of the things great teachers do regularly is monitor their wait time after we ask a question. “Restrain yourself by counting silently for 15 seconds before succumbing to the urge to tell them the correct answer to the question”, was the discussion I had with a colleague recently.
We all want our students to do well, so it is understandable why we want to make sure that the correct answer is out there so that students don’t form misconceptions. But, by not giving students a chance to answer we unintentionally thwart our primary goal… teaching kids how to think mathematically.
Perhaps we should extend this philosophy to every aspect of our classroom. A recent study out of Rutgers University’s Newark Urban Education Department supports this seemingly contradictive statement: “You can raise your school’s test scores by letting them struggle (even get a little frustrated) in algebra class.” (see:http://www.edutopia.org/math-underachieving-mathnext-rutgers-newark)
This article states that, "Most of the literature describes student engagement and motivation as having to do with their attitudes about math -- whether they like it or not," Schorr says. "That's different from the engagement we've found. When students are working on conceptually complex problems in a supportive environment, they do better. They report feeling frustrated, but also satisfaction, pride and a willingness to work harder next time."
And, “Since 2003, the average standardized math test scores among fourth graders in Newark schools have risen from 45 percent to 79 percent.”
As the Michigan Math Opensource textbook develops, on of our focuses is to consider the broader implications of the “wait time” concept. Ask yourself, “Am I the sage on the stage or the guide on the side?” If you find yourself being the sage on the stage a disproportionate amount of the time, you may want to consider adjusting your instructional strategies… and as you begin to use this opensource text you will find plenty of opportunity to be a guide on the side.
We all want our students to do well, so it is understandable why we want to make sure that the correct answer is out there so that students don’t form misconceptions. But, by not giving students a chance to answer we unintentionally thwart our primary goal… teaching kids how to think mathematically.
Perhaps we should extend this philosophy to every aspect of our classroom. A recent study out of Rutgers University’s Newark Urban Education Department supports this seemingly contradictive statement: “You can raise your school’s test scores by letting them struggle (even get a little frustrated) in algebra class.” (see:http://www.edutopia.org/math-underachieving-mathnext-rutgers-newark)
This article states that, "Most of the literature describes student engagement and motivation as having to do with their attitudes about math -- whether they like it or not," Schorr says. "That's different from the engagement we've found. When students are working on conceptually complex problems in a supportive environment, they do better. They report feeling frustrated, but also satisfaction, pride and a willingness to work harder next time."
And, “Since 2003, the average standardized math test scores among fourth graders in Newark schools have risen from 45 percent to 79 percent.”
As the Michigan Math Opensource textbook develops, on of our focuses is to consider the broader implications of the “wait time” concept. Ask yourself, “Am I the sage on the stage or the guide on the side?” If you find yourself being the sage on the stage a disproportionate amount of the time, you may want to consider adjusting your instructional strategies… and as you begin to use this opensource text you will find plenty of opportunity to be a guide on the side.
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